The Meta

FDA recalls skimmed milk with palm oil

THAILAND – The Food and Drug Administration yesterday ordered a nationwide recall of unsweetened condensed skimmed milk with a palmoil formula and products using the same ingredients after finding high melamine contamination at the Thai Dairy Industry’s factory.

As an immediate measure, the FDA confiscated 150,000 cans of the product to study the melamine content and instructed all provincial public health units to pull all similar products off the shelves.

The laboratory tests run by the Medical Science Department detected 92.82 milligrams of melamine compound per kilogram of unsweetened condensed skimmed milk with palm oil formula.

This transgresses the FDA standard of not more than 1 milligram per kilogram or 2.5 milligrams per kilogram of milkbased food and beverages. The company will face a fine of Bt5,000 to Bt20,000 and its executives imprisonment for six months to two years, he said.

The FDA is now investigating all raw materials that the company imported from Belgium, Switzerland, Australia, Germany, India and Burma.

Six dairy products were considered safe for human consumption, he said.

The three products from Snow Brand are modified milk readytomelt formula 2 Nuo Plus for infants and children aged six months to three years, modified milk readytomelt formula 1 Duo for newborns to infants aged one year, and readytomelt milk formula 3 Nuo Kids for infants aged one year and family members.

Three more products are now being checked for traces of melamine – Orchid salted butter, Birdwings sweetened condensed nondairy creamer, and sweetened condensed milk. The lab results will be released soon.

Suwit Polviwat, assistant managing director of Thai Dairy Industry, said he had not received any reports yet and could not give any details about the melamine contamination in the company’s product because he was not working at the office at that time.

“We are now checking which product lots were tainted with melamine and will officially disclose the details to the media later,” he said.

Pipat said the FDA had tested 519 milkbased products for contamination. The lab results of 200 products were positive and the products found safe for consumption. The rest of products are being investigated.

Some manufacturers have not reported the source of their raw materials use to make milk products to the FDA, he said.

The lab test results on S&P Syndicate’s cookies and ingredients are expected to be available today.

People should drink lots of water to drain the melamine toxin from their kidneys in order to avoid the severe symptoms from drinking melaminetainted milk products, he said.

The World Health Organisation has recommended the intake amount of melamine compound at not more than 0.5 milligram per kilogram per day.

Pipat said people could receive a maximum of over 25 milligrams per day of melamine compound.